About half a mile from Sloperton Station the South
Clapham and Medway line crossed a bridge over

[figure description] Page 035.[end figure description]

Sloperton-on-Trent. As the shades of evening were
closing, a man in a slouched hat might have been
seen carrying a saw and axe under his arm, hanging
about the bridge. From time to time he disappeared
in the shadow of its abutments, but the sound of a
saw and axe still betrayed his vicinity. At exactly
nine o'clock he re-appeared, and crossing to the Sloperton
side, rested his shoulder against the abutment
and gave a shove. The bridge swayed a moment,
and then fell with a splash into the water, leaving a
space of one hundred feet between the two banks.
This done, Burke the Slogger—for it was he—with a
fiendish chuckle seated himself on the divided
railway track and awaited the coming of the
train.

A shriek from the woods announced its approach.
For an instant Burke the Slogger saw the glaring of
a red lamp. The ground trembled. The train was
going with fearful rapidity. Another second and it
had reached the bank. Burke the Slogger uttered a
fiendish laugh. But the next moment the train
leaped across the chasm, striking the rails exactly
even, and, dashing out the life of Burke the Slogger,
sped away to Sloperton.

The first object that greeted Edgardo as he rode
up to the station on the arrival of the train, was the
body of Burke the Slogger hanging on the cow-catcher;
the second was the face of his deserted wife looking
from the windows of a second-class carriage.

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